Toyota Free State Cheetahs coach Naka Drotské and GWK Griquas fullback Rudi Vogt received the Absa Currie Cup Coach and Player of the Month awards for October at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein today.
The Absa Currie Cup Coach of the Month competition is designed to acknowledge and reward coaches for their outstanding leadership. Players, who are consistent and significantly contribute to the overall performance of the team, come into the reckoning for the Player of the Month award.
A media panel, consisting of respected journalists and commentators, were unanimous in their choice of Drotské as the coach of the month of October.
The Toyota Free State Cheetahs did not lose a single match in the second round of the Absa Currie Cup, and as in previous years, Drotské managed to coach his team to the knock-out phase of the competition, where they came up short against The Sharks last weekend.
With regards to Player of the Month, Griquas points machine Vogt received the majority of the votes.
The panel, consisting of all eight Absa Currie Cup Premier Division coaches, felt he played a major part in Griquas’ victory over the Vodacom Blue Bulls in Kimberly, effectively knocking the 2009 champions out of the competition. Vogt finished the league phase of the season in third place on the list of total points’ scorers on 144 points.
Other players such as Elton Jantjies (MTN Golden Lions), Ashley Johnson (Toyota FS Cheetahs), Jaco Bouwer (Ford Pumas) and coaches Abré Minnie (GWK Griquas) and John Plumtree (The Sharks) were also nominated for their fantastic performances in October.
Please note, the voting was concluded at the end of the league phase of the Absa Currie Cup and thus did not include last weekend's semi-final matches.